Okay, here’s my attempt at a blog post, keeping your instructions in mind.
Okay, here we go…raducanu vs stearns prediction, right? Let me tell you, getting to this point was a journey.
So, first thing’s first, I started by just grabbing all the data I could find. I’m talking head-to-head records, recent form, you name it. Went to a few sports sites, some tennis-specific stat pages… basically, a digital scavenger hunt. I was all over the place!
- Grabbed head-to-head stats.
- Looked at recent match results for both players.
- Checked their rankings and how they’ve been trending.
Then came the fun part, or at least what I thought would be fun. I wanted to see if I could build a super simple model. I’m no data scientist, mind you, just a guy who likes messing around with numbers. So I fired up Python, dusted off my barely-there coding skills, and started trying to wrangle the data into something usable.
I tried to throw things into excel first, but it was messy, i moved on. I used pandas to load data, then did some basic feature engineering like win rate, average games per set, and that kind of stuff. It was a real headache, let me tell you.
Next, i needed a model. I picked a logistic regression because it seemed like the easiest thing to try. Honestly, I’m not even sure if it was the right choice, but hey, gotta start somewhere, right? I split the data into training and testing sets, trained the model, and… the accuracy was terrible. Like, worse than flipping a coin. So, I said, “forget this”, and tried something else.
Okay, Plan B. Forget the fancy model. I decided to just go with my gut and look at the data. Stearns had a better recent record, raducanu was a bit unpredictable. I also tried to look at the court surface. Were they good on clay, hard courts, or grass? Turns out surface mattered a lot.
So, after all that digging, and a failed attempt at being a data whiz, here’s my prediction: I’m leaning towards Stearns, but it’s gonna be a close one. I’m betting on three sets, with Stearns edging it out.
Why Stearns? Her recent form is just a bit more consistent. Raducanu is capable of brilliance, but she can also have really off days.
Will I win my bet? Who knows! But at least I can say I tried to put some thought into it, even if my Python skills let me down. Maybe next time I’ll try a different model, or just stick to watching the matches and yelling at the TV. Either way, it’s all a bit of fun!
